Records of William Muir (Bond 9) Ltd, Leith

• Financial records, 1902-1932;
• Production records, 1977-1986;
• Promotional and marketing records, 1980s;
• Illustrations, 1950s;
• Historical notes, c1994

The whisky warehousing, blending and bottling company William Muir (Bond 9) Ltd (company number: SC023910) was established in Leith, Edinburgh in 1823. The company was originally involved in merchanting commodities across the North Sea, before moving into bottling and warehousing in the 1840s. Until 1918, bottling was carried out by customers on the company’s premises, rather than by the company. The ferry "William Muir" was named after the firm's founder.

By the 1950s whisky blenders Whyte & Mackay were using William Muir for blending and bottling. In 1972 William Muir introduced chill-filtration to counteract the issue of cloudiness in whisky, a process which had been developed in the 1930s but was not widely adopted by the Scotch whisky industry until the 1970s. At this time, as well as the premises in Leith, they were operating a bond at Condorrat, outside of Glasgow and by 1976 had 80% of Whyte & Mackay’s business.

By the late 1980s, following the acquisition of a significant number of blended whisky brands from DCL (Distillers Company Ltd), Whyte & Mackay needed to increase their bottling capacity and looked to purchase William Muir to achieve this. In 1988 a deal was agreed, which included a 49% share in the newly opened Scotch Whisky Heritage Centre, Edinburgh. The Leith plant was upgraded in the early 1990s; by 2001 the company was dormant.

• Sources:
• Moss, Michael and Turton, Alison, The History of Whyte and Mackay, c1987 (unpublished manuscript, UGD358/1/1)
• Paterson, Richard, and Gavin D Smith, Goodness Nose: The Passionate Revelations of a Scotch Whisky Master Blender (Neil Wilson Publishing, 2008)

Arranged chronologically within record series

Access to certain records within this collection may be restricted or closed for reasons of customer, commercial or third-party confidentiality.  Please email Archives and Special Collections for advice: library-asc@glasgow.ac.uk

Access is with the permission of the collection owners

• Transfer : Whyte and Mackay Ltd : 27 Mar 2020 : GB 248 UGD 224
• Deposit : Whyte and Mackay Ltd : 14 Dec 2015 : ACCN 4004
• Deposit : Whyte and Mackay Ltd : Sept 2019 : ACCN 4304

See also University of Glasgow Collections

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• GB 248 UGC 234: Records of Whyte & Mackay Ltd;
• NRAS863: William Muir (Bond 9) Ltd (private collection, enquiries to National Register of Archives for Scotland, Edinburgh, Scotland.)

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